Occasionally returning to the root of an idea is always beneficial, if only to be sure that the discussion still remains relevant to what you hope to accomplish.

In particular, revisiting some of the posts that form the backbone of TRP can be useful for two reasons:

First, we need to remember why redpillschool and the other moderators opted to implement the TRP points and endorsement flairs. Even if you don't get it, there are reasons why certain users are "flagged" as positive contributors, and while you can disagree with things that they say, attacking them personally is an affront to the time and effort they put into building this community, even if you, personally, haven't seen their contributions. It is my hope that visiting some of their old posts will help you understand why these users are endorsed.

Second, there is a difference between TRP and the PUA/seduction communities found elsewhere on reddit (and perhaps the manosphere as a whole), reading some of the original TRP posts will help you understand the difference. Make no mistake, ultimately The Red Pill comes down to

Discussion of sexual strategy in a culture increasingly lacking a positive identity for men.

but there are some subtle differences between this goal and what the PUA community accomplishes.

In this post I will be linking to many posts but by no means is this list exhaustive; I encourage you to click on any EC's post history to read the articles that made this community what it is today. Even if a post isn't highly upvoted, you will often find ideas that resonate with you and give you something to think about. Maybe you'll see something that sparks an idea for an article you can write yourself!

About three years ago, pk_atheist created the RedPill subreddit. This is the article he wrote at The Red Pill's inception. Like every part of our politically correct society, the seduction community had become a fem-centric space, more concerned about the possibility of offending women than accomplishing what it purports to be, "instructions" to pick up and/or seduce women. Instead of focusing and capitalizing on women's true nature, the seduction community "opted", intentional or not, to accommodate the concerns of the women who also browse the subreddit. Thus, TRP was created as a place to discuss "sexual strategy in a culture increasingly lacking a positive identity for men" - a place where men can talk about sexual strategy, without fear of being silenced for saying something that doesn't fit in the mainstream narrative.

Over the first few weeks and months (see "Introduction" on the side bar), pk_atheist refined the intentions of this subreddit, pointing out that Men's Rights has shifted to discussing "self-improvement tips that...make you a better man, not get laid more often". He claimed that "the frame around public discourse is a feminist frame, and we've lost our identity because of it." I quote this point not to debate it, but to provide a foundation to understand what TRP is built on: "discussion of sexual strategy in a culture increasingly lacking a positive identity for men", untainted by feminism.

Notice how I keep quoting this sentence, think about it, remember it, internalize it. There's no ambiguity, I don't know why "the point of TRP" is such a point of contention that frequently comes up in the discussions that take place here.

If the notion of a non-safe space scares you, if you feel that TRP is "immoral" or "manipulative", you can feel free to leave, but know that you are doing yourself a disservice; choosing not to play the game doesn't mean that the game is not happening around you. You can also pick and choose what you like, TRP doesn't claim to be an all-or-nothing philosophy, it's simply a compendium of the experiences of men around the world.

With this in mind, the following posts are from when TRP was first making a name for itself. Lists of outstanding posts have been made before, so here I've intentionally chosen to list posts that are less often quoted, whether because they weren't highly upvoted (because of controversial content, bad timing or a smaller userbase) or posted by users who are no longer active. In other words, posts that aren't found in theredpill/posts/top/all_time but were written by ECs and contain content worth thinking about.

For brevity's sake, I've also opted not to list more than two articles by the same author, encouraging you to take the initiative to read more of their content by visiting their profile and sorting by "top" or "submitted". You may have to do some work to sort through what's relevant (for those ECs who post in other subreddits) but all worthwhile endeavors require some degree of effort. My goal is not to provide an exhaustive list as much as to highlight the point that there's lots more content to explore that isn't on the sidebar/front page.

You will notice that many of the older articles on TRP (listed here and not) are rough around the edges because the ideas that are freely available to you on the sidebar were only being hashed out for the first time. I personally got more out of the posts that were speculative rather than definitive, controversial rather than unanimously upvoted - they often ask unanswered questions rather than state concrete points, consider writing your own post to answer/discuss these questions. Even the RP Vanguards are just regular dudes, once figuring things out just like you are today.

I don't have more time to spend on this, but I think I've made my point - there's lots of content and ideas that have not been fully explored, dig up some old posts and consider writing about these ideas. Or else, if there's a post you disagree with, feel free to downvote, but include why you're downvoting - it's a great way to give back to the community, promoting discussion and new ideas.

Hopefully you've gained an appreciation for what the older members of this community have done for you, as you enjoy the shade, consider planting trees for others by coming up with new ideas or revisiting old ones that haven't yet been fully explored.

In closing, I suggest that the reason the seduction/PUA/Men's Rights communities ultimately failed is because they forgot to return to their roots, to consider what they set out to do in the first place: create a place to discuss sexual strategy in a pure, unbiased forum. I thank redpillschool and the rest of the mod team for giving us such a space.